The anime first aired in 1996 on ZDF. The full German title was Sailor Moon - Das Mädchen mit den Zauberkräften (Sailor Moon - The Girl with Magic Powers). The network showed one episode a week every Saturday. There was some censorship in a few episodes, but generally the German dub stayed close to the original Japanese version. Sailor Moon enjoyed some success on ZDF, but it was not until it moved to RTL II in May 1997 that the show really became popular in Germany. On RTL II it became part of an afternoon-long kids' program called Vampy, and was given a prime-time slot. ZDF's dub only included the first season, but RTL II decided to also dub Sailor Moon R, and later the rest of the series. Most, but not all, voice actors from the ZDF dub were brought back by RTL II to reprise their roles. The German dub has also been shown in Austria, Liechtenstein, and parts of Switzerland; it also aired in Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia with a narrator speaking in Lithuanian over the German dub audio (a double audio dub similar to that of the Russian dub).

Having already established a name for itself through ZDF's showing, Sailor Moon soon became a national hit, with viewership of over 10% of the German population during its popularity peak. RTL II chose to air all of the Sailor Moon episodes, except for episode 89, as it was merely a recap of previous episodes. RTL II also dubbed all the movies and aired them as "special episodes," although the actual specials were not dubbed.

In 2000, Sailor Moon finished after a successful three years on RTL II. It had no further re-runs there and RTL II apparently let the license expire, suggesting that it will not air on that network again. After airing on RTL II, Sailor Moon moved to Fox Kids (Germany/Austria) and SRF Zwei (Switzerland).

The German dub closely followed the original Japanese version; there was minimal censorship done by RTL II, and the dialogue closely followed the original, occasionally word-for-word. The description Michiru and Haruka gave of their relationship was translated word for word ("She is very special to me"), although some other minor lines of dialogue were changed.

Unlike most other dubs, the German dub did not attempt to change the names of the characters, apart from Usagi who became "Bunny" in order to work in the pun of her name. In some episodes, however, she was still called Usagi; it was not clear if this was intended and her name was actually Usagi (making "Bunny" a nickname), or if it was just an error in the dubbing script.

In the earlier episodes some of the Japanese elements were downplayed; for example, Bunny claimed that she was eating hamburgers (not odango).

Instead of using a literal translation of "odango atama," Mamoru initially made fun of Bunny's "weiche Birne" ("weich" means "soft," and "Birne" means "pear" but is used as slang for "head") in the first season. When RTL II took over, this was changed to "Mondgesicht" (moon face) in the R season.

The word "kill" was often dubbed as "sleep" or "enchant" ("Rei, don't fall asleep" instead of "Rei, you can't die" or Rubeus shouting "Sleep, Sailor Moon!" instead of "Die, Sailor Moon!"). Instead of dying, it was said that the Talisman owners would "never be their old selves again" if they lost their Pure Heart Crystals.

How Chibiusa got her name was never explained; everyone just started using that name in episode 61.

Scenes where Sailor Moon was screaming in pain were shortened by ZDF for the first airing of episode 46.

The first Japanese opening video - with some changes at the beginning - was used from the first season onwards, and was not changed until one re-run of the S season. The opening theme songs were changed a few times, even after the whole series had been dubbed, so the German episodes can be found in different versions with different theme songs. The first three were original German songs, called "Sag das Zauberwort," "Kämpfe Sailor Moon," and "Macht des Mondes"; the latter two were performed by the Super Moonies. The fourth and last theme song was called "Flieg durch die Wolken."

The dub's constant ending song was a short, slow-tempo version of "Sag das Zauberwort," played with an excerpt from the first Japanese ending animation.

The 18 tankoubon of the Sailor Moon manga were translated and released in Germany between 1998 and 2000 by FeestComics, a subsidiary of the publishing company Egmont. Though the first manga released by them was Appleseed in 1994, Sailor Moon was the first major commercial success for the company's manga line. They also published the first five Sailor Moon artbooks, and the Codename: Sailor V manga was released under the title Sailor V.

Most of the characters' names were kept, except for Usagi's name being changed to Bunny, and some minor spelling changes. Queen Beryl was called "Perilia," Jadeite's name was spelled "Jedyte," and Nephrite's was spelled "Neflite." Chibiusa's real name was Bunny Tsukino, and the characters at first called her "Kleine Bunny" (Little Bunny). However, Luna P called her "Chibi-usa" and soon everyone else picked it up, with no explanation as to where the name came from.

Some items, attacks, and side characters had more significant name changes.

The pages were flipped and the translation was done from the English version of the Sailor Moon manga, and from the French version of the Sailor V manga.